My Top 10 Lessons from 2021

2022 is right around the corner. For most of us, the start of a new year marks a new beginning, and with that, a chance to set goals for ourselves for the coming year. These goals can embody how we would like to grow as a person, what we would like to accomplish, or simply the things that we would like to do or see… However, before we make our resolutions for the new year, I think it’s extremely important to reflect on our past year—the successes, the setbacks, and everything in between—in order to truly be able to set out for change or growth in the coming 12 months.

With every year of life comes another year’s worth of lessons. Here’s what I’ve learned in 2021…

1. Live in the moment. You never know what tomorrow is going to bring, so embrace every experience as you live it.

2. Change doesn’t always have to be a bad thing…It can be scary, no doubt about it, but without change, there’s no growth, no moving forward.

3. You don’t have to be happy all of the time. Life happens, and with that comes a whole slew of feelings/emotions—happiness is one, but so is sadness, so is stress, so is anger. It’s okay to feel your emotions, but it’s also important to pick yourself back up when the time is right, and to keep moving forward.

4. Strive for progress, not perfection. There’s significance in every step that you take to get to the place that you want to be.

5. Success looks different for everyone. Don’t compare yourself to others in order to validate your accomplishments or feel comfort in the place that you are at in your life.

6. One step at a time, always. Great things don’t necessarily happen overnight.

7. Live life with an open mind—we often expect so much of ourselves and our experiences that we set ourselves up for disappointment. Go into every day and every experience with an open mind, and you’re more likely to find the good, however big or small it may be, in the things that you do.

8. Appreciate the people that are constants in your life. People will come and go, some without reason at all, but the ones that stick by you through thick and thin are the ones truly worth celebrating.

9. Always be yourself, regardless of what others think. There’s no point in trying to be something or someone that you’re not. If people aren’t going to like you, they’ll find a reason, whatever it may be, not to, and if things aren’t going to work out, they won’t. However, everything will work out the way that it’s supposed to if you do it the right way, by being yourself.

10. Everything happens for a reason…the successes, the setbacks, and everything in between. Look at each experience—good, bad, or ugly—as a life lesson. Whether you realize it or not in the moment, these experiences have ultimately shaped you into the person that you’ve become.

We can never fully predict how each year is going to be…I think we definitely learned that over the greater part of the past two years…However, in the midst of uncertainty and in spite of the obstacles we may face over the course of a year, we also have the ability to find good in the things that we do and we achieve, even if that accomplishment can only be seen within ourselves.

Cheers to the New Year, and wishing you a happy and healthy start to 2022!